Pricing
You pay twice the model's upstream list price, and nothing else for the API. No subscription, no seat fee, no charge for keys or spend caps.
Model said no? Get your money back. Email support@wildwestapi.com with the request and we'll refund what it cost.
| Tokens | Twice the upstream list price |
| API keys | Unlimited, free |
| Spend caps | Free, on every key |
| Minimum top-up | $5.00 |
| Service fee per top-up | 3.5% plus 30c |
| Subscription | None |
How credit works
- Top up your balance from the dashboard, with a card or with crypto.
- Every request is priced by the tokens it reads and writes, at the rates on the model list.
- The cost comes off your balance as each reply finishes. When it runs low, top up again.
How the margin works
Every model carries twice the price its upstream provider charges. That is the whole pricing model. The per-model figures on the models page already include it, so the price you read there is the price you are billed, per million tokens, in and out.
Billing is in whole nano-dollars, a billionth of a dollar, so short calls are costed exactly rather than rounded up into a bigger number.
Spend caps are part of the price
Every key can carry a lifetime cap, a monthly cap, or both. Wild West API reserves the worst-case cost of a request before it leaves and clamps the response length to what the cap covers, so a key cannot bill past the number you set on it. A request that will not fit under the cap is refused instead of sent. A key that hits its cap stops, even if your balance has more in it.
The service fee
Each top-up carries a 3.5% service fee plus 30c, added on top, so the credit you choose is the credit you get. Some examples:
| Credit | Fee | You pay |
|---|---|---|
| $5.00 | $0.48 | $5.48 |
| $10.00 | $0.65 | $10.65 |
| $25.00 | $1.18 | $26.18 |
| $50.00 | $2.05 | $52.05 |
| $100.00 | $3.80 | $103.80 |
What a request costs
Say a conversation has grown to 6,000 tokens of instructions and history, and the model writes a 300 token reply, on a model priced at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens. Input costs $0.0024, output costs $0.00048, so the request costs about $0.003, or roughly 350 of them for a dollar. As the history grows each request costs a little more, because the model rereads all of it.
Paying
Cards are handled by Stripe, so your card number never touches our servers. Crypto is handled by NOWPayments: you get an address and an exact amount, and the dashboard watches for it to confirm. Every top-up shows in the payment history in your dashboard.
Questions
What if a model refuses my request?
Email support@wildwestapi.com with the request, either its time or the request id from your dashboard, and we will refund what that request cost to your balance.
Is there a subscription?
No. You buy prepaid credit and spend it on tokens. There is no seat fee and no monthly minimum.
Do the prices on the models page include the margin?
Yes. The per-model prices are what you pay, with the margin already added, so the number you read is the number you are billed.
Do extra API keys cost anything?
No. Keys are free. Make one per project, per tool or per device, give each its own cap, and revoke it when you are done.
What is the minimum top-up?
Five dollars, plus the 3.5% service fee plus 30c. After the first top-up there is no minimum spend.
Why is there a service fee?
Card networks and crypto processors charge to take a payment. The fee covers that, and it sits on its own line, so a $10 top-up always puts $10 of credit in your balance.
Which coins can I pay with?
The crypto checkout lists the coins it takes, including the usual stablecoins, Bitcoin and Monero. Pick one, send the exact amount shown, and your balance updates once the network confirms it.